


There but for the Grace of God

by SweetPollyOliver



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Ableism, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, abuse is not sexual in nature, institutionalisation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 09:13:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4661010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetPollyOliver/pseuds/SweetPollyOliver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You bet your ass Jack's paranoid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There but for the Grace of God

“Paranoid! Oh boy, that’s rich, ha! Bet your ass I’m paranoid. Bunch of jailors in white coats. Blue uniforms. Whatever.”

Julian was beginning to regret arranging access to Jack’s file for him. It was technically Jack’s right to read it if he wished to, for all that that had never been openly advertised to the patients at the Institute, but Julian was beginning to have some sympathy for the people who’d kept it quiet in the first place.

Jack had been pacing the room and muttering under his breath about the things written in his file for the entire forty five minutes Julian had been there.

“Violent and irrational they called me. Did you read that, hmm, hmm? Of course you did; you’ve read all our files. As if it’s irrational to be anything but sweetness and light when you’re a glorified prisoner of war? A war, mind you, that’s been  _over_ for nearly four centuries.”

“Jack… nobody likes to read the stark and unadorned things a doctor writes about them,” Julian said cagily. “I think maybe you need to put it out of your mind. I don’t feel that this is helpful for you.”

“So you agree with them!” Jack spun around. “You think I’m ‘violent and irrational’ too, admit it!”

“Well the first time we met you broke a padd against Dr. Loews’ hand and then later that same day threatened to break Sarina’s neck over a high pitched noise,” he snapped.

“I would never have hurt Sarina, never! She knew that, she just had to help me, she didn’t mind.” Jack turned away again waving his left hand dismissively while he brought his right hand up to his mouth.

“I’m not sure that she  _did_  know that,” Julian said. “People cannot be expected to just  _know_  that you’re not serious when you say things like that. And you can’t expect to be thought of as rational and non-violent if this is how you conduct yourself.” Jack stalked off to the other side of the room and started walking on his hands. “Look, Jack, I came here to visit you not scold you. I’m sorry that you’ve never been given access to your file before now. It shouldn’t have been kept from you. But I really do not want to do a post mortem on every single remark in it.”

“Because you don’t want to admit I’m right.” Jack’s face was turning a little red.

“Because I want to talk to you about other things! You’re my friend–I enjoy your company. I do not enjoy debating about whether or not the doctor who treated you as a child meant anything sinister when he said that you were slightly below average height for your age.”

“He could talk. He was seven point six two centimetres below the mean height for adult human males. But they’re never the ones who’re judged, oh no, it’s all about us. How tall we are, what we weigh, what we eat, what we wear, what we read, what we say. It’s allllll written down, written down, written down, so that they can dissect us and decide who and what we are.”

“I used to be afraid of doctors when I was young,” Julian said, “But really all they want is to-”

“Julian I’ll thank you not to talk to me about being afraid of doctors when you’ve never been tied to a bed before you were pubescent because you made too much trouble for the night staff, hmm?”


End file.
